Sunday, August 28, 2011

The Haredi Love Of The Army Analogy

This short piece was aired on Channel 2 news on Motzei Shabbat. In truth there is little new here - The news channel asks the Haredim how they think the public is going to continue supporting them - and they never get an answer. When asked how they explain the fact that the Rambam urges people to work - they can only offer a really silly answer. The second part of the piece is more sympathetic to the Haredi community.

However this is a good illustration of another phenomenon I've noticed - The Haredi love of styling themselves as an army unit. It seems that whenever the Haredi communitiy in Israel attempts any type ofapologetica, they will always try and use military references. In this interview for example they call themselves the "sayert Matkal" (Delta Force) of Judaism. This is far from an isolated incident.

Since the major accusation against the Hardi community is that they don't serve in the army, styling themselves as some kind of an army unit is somewhat understandable. In essence it is a claim that "You serve in the IDF", and we serve in another "God's army", but we are both doing our part.There are a few other possible explanations though: It is just possible that the Haredi community genuinely feel a little Jealous of the "macho" image of soldiers. Another possible explanation is that these second tier apologists actually believe that the non religious community really always thinks in "military" manner.